Marooned
by Admetus
Summary: Set before the events of Aliens. Hicks and Vasquez are trapped together in a collapsed tunnel waiting to be rescued. [This story is for my twin sister as a Thank You for all her support.] xx


_It should have been just a routine training exercise. Nobody was supposed to get hurt. They were all supposed to be back in the warm by now laughing about the whole thing, not standing outside in subzero temperatures staring in horror at the crater in the snowy ground where there had once been a tunnel. A tunnel their friends had been in when it collapsed._

_It had been almost five minutes and nobody had moved. The snow had covered them so they looked like part of the icy landscape around them. It was the shock that robbed them of anything to say and frozen them to the spot. All of them had seen somebody be injured before, it was nothing new, most of them had even seen somebody they knew die, but this was different. There was no enemy to fight, no dangerous mission, not even an accident with somebody's weapons, just some stupid tunnel, a bit of rock that had been there for hundreds of years and had decided to give way today._

_The worst part was not even knowing whether their friends were alive or dead. There was nothing they could do for them. Already it was getting dark and soon it would be too late and too cold to start digging through the rubble. They would all have to go inside and try and get some sleep leaving people they cared about outside in the snow and ice, trapped, injured or possibly dying or dead. There was nothing they could do until morning._

* * *

Buried deep under layers of rock, ice and snow Corporal Hicks slowly opened his eyes. He seemed to be lying in a cave created by a large piece of rock holding the other rubble off him. If he looked up some of the looser snow allowed a tiny bit of light to filter through but it was fading fast, soon he would be in complete darkness. The only comforting thought was that if he could see some light there must be holes that would let air in. At least he wouldn't suffocate. He tried to sit up but found he couldn't move. A large piece of rock had landed on his legs pinning him to the floor. Due to the extreme cold he hadn't felt it before but now he'd noticed it the pain radiated through him making him feel sick and dizzy. Without needing to be able to see it Hicks was pretty sure his left leg was broken in several places and he could see blood leaking out from under the stone to freeze into an icy red puddle beside him. There were other injuries but the pain from his leg made them feel like nothing at all so he hardly even noticed them. With a huge effort Hicks lent forwards and dragged the boulder off his leg gritting his teeth as it tore the skin away. It cost all his energy just to move it without damaging the bone any more than it already was.

Once his legs were freed Hicks sat up and lent against the rock that had just been crushing him. His head was spinning and he was finding it hard to concentrate on anything around him because his vision was fading to a strange grey, not that it mattered much as it was nearly completely dark by now anyway. He had to do something about these injuries before he passed out from blood loss then he could... Could what exactly? There was something he had to do, something very important but what was it? His confused brain struggled to remember. Maybe if he thought about what had happened it would give him a clue. They had been walking down the tunnel on their way home when... Hang on, that was it, they! He'd been with somebody...Vasquez, but where was she now. Quickly he looked from side to side but the movement made his head spin and he couldn't make anything out in the gloom anyway. Hicks closed his eyes for a minute. Then he remembered he'd had a first aid kit with him in his pocket and if he was lucky it would still be there. His clothes were torn, dirty, blood soaked and looked more like rags than anything else but fortunately the first aid kit seemed to have survived intact. Pulling it out Hicks looked for the pain medication that had to be there somewhere, it would help him to think more clearly. Once that was taken care of he took out all the bandages he could find and put them on the ground beside him. Now what he needed was some light. There was always a little torch with the first aid kits for situations like this so that wasn't a problem. With the light Hicks examined his injuries hoping it wasn't as serious as it felt. His left leg was indeed broken in several places, the bone sticking out half way up his shin, and most of the skin had been torn away leaving only small places uninjured but even they were bruised and scratched. Trying not to think about the horrible infections he was likely to get with nothing to properly clean the wounds with, Hicks bandaged his leg as best he could padding around the broken bone with yet more bandages. Then he moved on to the other injuries he had sustained. There were deep cuts on his other leg and side, he couldn't use his left arm properly and there was a large lump on the side of his head where he had clearly hit it when he fell over or a rock had fallen on him.

When he had finished Hicks took the torch and crawled in the direction he thought Vasquez had been in when the tunnel collapsed. He couldn't even stand up the rubble above him was so low, so he had to drag his broken leg painfully across the floor. At that second Hicks would have given anything to be anywhere else. Some of the worse situations he'd ever been in didn't come close to this, being trapped under ice and snow, so cold he couldn't feel his hands or feet, with no food or water and looking for somebody who was probably hurt or dead. It didn't get much worse than that. "Vasquez?" His voice came out as a feeble, hoarse croak. There was no reply. Cursing Hicks shone the torch around but there was no sign of the other marine anywhere. She must have been buried when the roof caved in and if that was the case he'd never find her on his own in the dark when injured unless he happened to be very lucky and with the way the day had turned out so far that wasn't looking very likely. Hicks dropped the torch and sank down onto the floor with a gasp of pain. He'd just have to wait there for somebody to come and find him. It was bitterly cold and now he wasn't doing anything the marine had begun to shiver violently. Slowly he slipped sideways until he was lying on the icy floor.

Then he noticed something. To his left he could just see a small scrap of material he hadn't noticed when searching the area. It was caught on a pile of loose stones and chunks of ice that made up part of the wall of the makeshift cave. As fast as he could Hicks crawled towards it. "Vasquez?" He could barely hear himself so it was unlikely that if she was there she'd be able to hear him and it made his throat burn trying to talk so he gave up and just began to shift the rocks to one side cursing as the movement jolted his injured arm. It took such a frustratingly long time with just one hand that Hicks felt like cursing and shouting but all he could manage was to whisper a long string of rude words and to glare at the offending rubble. By the time he'd even made a little dent in the stack his knuckles were cracked and bleeding, his hand was scratched and he had completely torn away one fingernail. Refusing to give up he kept on moving stones hoping he was looking in the right place and not doing this for nothing.

Just as he was about to give up Hicks spotted what looked like a hand trapped under a block of ice. "Vasquez? Can you hear me?" There was no answer but he thought he saw one of the squashed fingers twitch slightly and if that was the case it meant she must still be alive at least. With renewed energy the corporal freed his friend as fast as he could, not caring or even really noticing the pain in his hands and injured arm when he used it.

When he'd cleared enough rock Hicks very very carefully dragged Vasquez into the middle of their prison. To his immense relief she was still breathing but every time she did there was a horrible whistling, gurgling sound that couldn't mean anything good. She looked unconscious but she didn't appear to have any visible head injuries, her ribs where crushed and battered, some of them poking through the skin and others probably causing the strange noise when she tried to breath and her right arm had a nasty gash running from her wrist almost to her shoulder. Apart from that the other cuts and bruises were relatively minor. Efficiently Hicks bandaged the deep cut on her arm but then he wasn't sure how to bandage her ribs. He couldn't move her to wrap a bandage round her chest but how else was he supposed to stop the bleeding, it wasn't as if he could exactly apply pressure or anything. In the end he settled for placing something on the areas that were bleeding to hopefully at least slow the blood flow slightly and stop any more dirt from entering the wounds. Only then did Hicks notice how cold Vasquez's skin felt when he touched it and that her lips had gone an unhealthy blueish colour. He looked around for anything that he could cover her up with to try and keep her warm but there was nothing in sight. His jacket was torn to shreds so it was no use whatsoever and he didn't have anything else. Why had nobody thought to put a survival blanket in the first aid kit? That would have been helpful. Instead somebody had put in a first aid manual, very helpful in an emergency. It did give Hicks an idea though. Taking off his jacket he put it on the ground then he added some bandages and the first aid manual and rummaged around in his pocket for his firelighter. The book caught quickly but it took longer for the jacket to start to burn because it was wet. Soon a proper little fire was burning. It was too small to melt the snow and ice around them but just large enough to hopefully stop them from freezing to death. Hicks glanced over at Vasquez to make sure she was close enough to the fire to feel the tiny bit of warmth and saw she had her eyes open a tiny bit and was watching him.

"Are you alright?", Hicks managed to ask and inched slowly back over until he was sat beside her dragging his broken leg. It was a stupid question seeing as how she looked awful and ill and couldn't even breath properly but it was something to say.

"I've been better," Vasquez whispered so quietly Hicks had to lean closer to be able to catch what she was saying. As she tried to talk she began to cough, gasping and struggling for air. It felt like her whole side was on fire and breathing was like lifting a dead weight. Her icy fingers clutched Hicks' hand so hard her nails actually broke the skin in an attempt not to move and make the pain worse.

Hicks waited patiently for her to stop coughing a look of concern on his face. It was horrible having to watch her struggle to breathe when there was no way of helping her and he wished there was something he could do to make his friend more comfortable. Eventually she stopped choking and let go of his hand looking embarrassed. "Sorry," she whispered. Hicks shook his head and squeezed her hand. He knew how much she hated feeling weak and helpless so this was probably very hard for her.

"It's cold, isn't it?", Hicks said after a brief pause where he couldn't think of anything to say to try and take her mind off her injuries. Personally he didn't think the cold was all bad because it numbed the pain in his leg but saying that wasn't really helpful right now as Vasquez was shivering.

"Very cold." She lent her head against him and closed her eyes looking exhausted.

Clearly the plan to distract her hadn't worked. Hicks racked his brain for something better to say, something more positive. "Do you remember that time we got lost in that jungle and had to sleep outside?" He smiled at the memory. Something about the way they were huddled by a tiny fire had reminded him of that night years ago. "Hudson thought we would be eaten by wild animals and wouldn't go to sleep and we had to eat those strange rabbit-like animals we managed to catch and they tasted foul. Actually I won't think about that it reminds me how hungry I am."

With a faint grin Vasquez reached into her pocket and pulled out a squashed and mangled cookie covered in fluff, wincing as she moved. "If you're really hungry you can eat this," she suggested quietly, "but I have had it in my pocket for ages. I've just remember I put it there a week ago." This slightly longer speech made her cough again and this time Hicks was worried to notice that she had blood on her hand when she took it away from her mouth.

He didn't comment though he just took the cookie and pulled a face. "Want any?" When Vasquez shook her head he took a bite out of it. It was one of the most horrible things he'd ever tasted. There were all sorts of other flavors like fluff, dirt and something salty that he really hoped wasn't blood as well as the actual biscuit that probably hadn't been that tasty to start with, more like cardboard. With an effort Hicks swallowed the mouthful. "That is disgusting!" He ate the rest of the food and lay down beside his friend. "What do you think the others are doing now? Hopefully planning how to rescue us as soon as it's light."

"Probably." Vasquez had closed her eyes again and it looked like she was almost asleep.

Hicks sat up again and reached over to throw more bandages and a leaflet on how to treat a cut hand onto the fire. It wasn't making much difference but he still didn't want it to go out. "I bet they're all pretending not to be bothered and to be asleep but counting down the hours until they can look for us. That's what I'd be doing," Hicks continued lying back down again and moving as close as he could to Vasquez to try and keep warm. When she didn't answer he glanced over at her and found she had fallen asleep. It was probably for the best. Slowly Hicks dozed off as well.

What felt like seconds later but was in fact several hours Hicks was woken by a gasping, choking noise and Vasquez thrashing beside him. He jumped to his feet and caught hold of her before she could make her injuries worse. She continued to cough for a while but stopped struggling as soon as Hicks wrapped his arms round her. Every time she breathed blood bubbled out the corner of her mouth and she moaned in pain. After what seemed like ages she was finally quiet again but she was shaking and with a whimper Vasquez turned her head and buried her face in Hicks' shoulder. He just stayed where he was rooted to the spot staring down at her. For as long as he had known her Hicks had never seen Vasquez be upset by anything, she was fearless, but she looked scared now. It almost frightened him to think that she was afraid of something. "What is it?", he asked trying his best to sound calm.

"Just a dream," she muttered quietly into his shoulder and suddenly moved away from him again going red. "It's stupid." She settled herself back down to sleep refusing to look at her friend who was still staring at her. Her hands were still trembling.

"It's clearly not nothing." Hicks moved so be was lying beside her again. "You can tell me. I won't tell anyone." He reached over and squeezed her hand supportively.

Vasquez shrugged her shoulders slightly and began to talk so quietly that Hicks almost didn't realise she'd said anything. "When I was a child I nearly drowned. I was dreaming about that. I couldn't breathe when I woke up and that's what upset me. Normally it never bothers me but now..." Her voice trailed off and she closed her eyes.

"I didn't know that." Hicks was finding it hard to even imagine Vasquez as a child let alone something happening to her that would still upset her years later.

She shrugged. "I've never told anyone before."

"I won't tell anybody. If you find it hard to breathe again just wake me, ok?" They both lay in silence for a while staring into the gloom.

"Hicks?"

"Yes?" Hicks glanced down at Vasquez. She wasn't looking at him but she was smiling slightly.

"Thanks." She closed her eyes and turn her head away clearly showing she didn't want to talk any more. After a few minutes they were both asleep again.

The next morning Hicks was woken by the sound of stones collapsing and a gust of cold air rushing over him. He sat up confused and then remembered where he was. Vasquez was still asleep beside him, no asleep wasn't quite right she was unconscious, and the fire was still lit even if it was about to go out but one side of the prison they'd been trapped in was gone letting light and fresh air in. "They're here!", a voice shouted making Hicks wince at the loud noise and suddenly there were people all around them. They were trying to talk to him but it was too hard to listen to them all at once. He just shook his head and closed his eyes again hoping they'd take the hint and be quiet. Then he felt himself being lifted onto a stretcher and opened his eyes. It was hard to make out what was going on around him but one thing did stand out. Drake was kneeling beside Vasquez looking down at her. Years later Hicks would still remember the look on his face. He looked frightened and angry but at the same time so caring and glad she was alive. Drake bent down, kissed Vasquez on the forehead and picked her up so gently that she could have been made of glass. Hicks smiled. They were safe now. Then he passed out and didn't remember anything else.


End file.
